Bead dispenser



y 1954 c. c. BLAND BEAD DISPENSER Filed Feb. 9, 1950 X? FIG.1.

I INVENTOR. CHARLES C. BLAND BY ATTORNEY- Patented July 27, 1954 UNITED i ATENT OFFICE BEAD DISPENSER Application February 9, 1950, Serial No. 143,297

2 Claims.

This invention relates to bead dispensers, and particularly to a device of the type for applying minute glass beads to a stripe of suitable adhesive-which has previously been painted on a road way, or airport runway, or the like, so that the glass beads will reflect the light cast thereupon by the headlights of moving vehicles for their guidance.

Among other advantages, my bead. dispenser is so constructed as to apply a layer of beads in such a manner that the layer will not only be of predetermined thickness, but will be of uniform thickness throughout its length, and also will be of uniform width throughout. Another advantage of the device is that it is of simple construction and comprises few parts, all of which are enclosed in a single container which is mounted on wheels, thus rendering the dispenser economical from the standpoint of its manufacture and. easily transportable. feature of my dispenser is the speed with which it may be operated while maintaining the uniform thickness and width of the layer of beads being deposited.

In the drawings- Fig. 1 is a top plan View of my bead dispenser as it appears when mounted on wheels in operative position.

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional View taken on line 2-2, Fig. 1, illustrating particularly the sweep for limiting the thickness at which the beads are uniformly deposited and the means for conveying said beads to and from said sweep.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail view of the sweep.

The invention comprises a housing I having a top 2 provided with an inlet opening 3 which is surrounded by a vertical wall 4. The housing I also has side walls 5, a vertical rear wall ii, a short front wall I, and a bottom wall including a diagonal section 8 terminating in a curved 5 portion 9 which approximates a semi-circle, and another section It! which extends diagonally from the end of the curved portion 9. The lower end of the wall 6 terminates in a short diagonal section [I which is parallel with, but spaced away from, the diagonal section it to provide an outlet l2, as shown in Fig. 2. The housing just described is mounted upon a frame, but since this frame does not constitute a part of the present invention it is not shown in the drawing and Still another 7 axle it a ground wheel 14 is rigidly mounted for rotation therewith to propel the dispenser. A pair of bearings [5, one on each side of the hous ing, is also mounted on the portion A.

As shown in Fig. l, a portion of the axle it extends across the width of the housing, and. a sweep i6 is rigidly mounted on said axle and rotates therewith. The axle is provided with a small projection ll which fits into a recess 53 in the sweep (Fig. 3) to retain axle and sweep in fixed relation with each other. The sweep is composed of a plurality of circular elements iii of equal diameter which are closely arranged side by side, as seen in Fig. 1, there being a. sufiicient number of the elements 59 to extend across the housing from one side wall 5 to the other. Each of the circular elements I9 is provided with a plurality of outwardly extending projections 29 equidistant from each other, all of said projections being of the same depth, and the circular elements l9 are so arranged on the axle it that the projections 2c on the respective circular elements are in staggered relation with each other.

The curved portion 9 of the bottom wall of the housing is positioned beneath the sweep l5 and spaced a short distance away from said sweep, and a baiile plate 2| extends diagonally from the top wall 2 interiorly of the housing to a point above and slightly forward of the sweep, as shown at 22 in Fig. 2. A shorter bafile plate 23 extends diagonally and approximately parallel with the baiile 2! from the wall 6 interiorly of the housing to a point a short distance away from the section Ill of the bottom wall, as shown at 24.

In operation the procedure is as follows:

Suppose a stripe of glass beads is to be applied to a roadway or the like. Preceding the operation of my bead dispenser, a stripe of adhesive is painted on the roadway, after which my head dispenser is so positioned on the roadway that its discharge outlet l2, which terminates only a slight distance above the surface of the roadway, comes immediately above the stripe of adhesive, the adhesive stripe being of exactly the same width as the discharge outlet l2.

With the dispenser in this position, a quantity of the minute glass heads is fed into the container l through the inlet opening 3 from a hopper (not shown) above the dispenser. As the beads enter the container, some of them will fall directly upon the sweep l6 while others will strike the bafiie plate 2| and be deflected thereby to the sweep. The dispenser is propelled on its ground wheels l4, and as they rotate the axle l3 also revolves, turning with it the sweep l6. The beads enter the spaces between the projections 20 on the sweep and are carried by the sweep until they reach the uppermost point of the curved portion 9 of the bottom wall, at which point they fall upon the section of wall l9 and are directed thereby to the outlet l2. The bafiie plate 23 serves to deflect to the discharge outlet [2 any beads which may bounce up from the wall Hi during operation.

It will be readily understood from Fig. 2 that the quantity of beads discharged from the dispenser depends upon the depth of the projections 20 on the sweep; that is to say, the longer the projections 20 and consequently the deeper the spaces between them, the larger the quantity of beads which the sweep can carry for discharge at the outlet l2. It follows that the thickness of the layer of beads deposited upon the adhe sive stripe is also dependent upon the depth of the spaces between the projections 26, since the greater the quantity of beads discharged, the thicker the layer being deposited. In other words, the thickness of the layer of beads deposited is regulated by the size of the projections 28 on the sweep.

From the above it is clear that my dispenser may be operated at any convenient rate of speed without impairing its eihciency as to the uniformity of either the thickness or the width of the layer of glass beads which it deposits.

I claim:

1. A bead dispensing device for discharging beads for forming a layer of predetermined width and thickness, said device comprising a receptacle provided with wheels fixed upon a rotatable axle and having a hopper for receiving a supply of beads with the hopper having an inlet and outlet for gravity flow of the beads through the hopper, said receptacle having a semicylindrical bottom the axis of which extends transversely of the receptacle, a rotatable sweep fixedly mounted upon said axle to rotate when the wheels rotate within and coaxial with said cylindrical bottom, said sweep including a longitudinal succession of members of similar form and dimension and axially aligned for rotation upon said axle as a unit, each member having a plurality of uniformly spaced projections about its periphery of equal depth and a width equal to the width of the member, said projections of a member which are im mediately adjacent one another forming a groove therebetween, the projections of each member being staggered with relation to those of the adjacent member so that a tortuous passageway is defined from one end of the sweep to the other through said grooves, the respective projections cooperating with the wall of the semicylindrical portion to form a channel of definite and shallow dimension within which the beads are advanced to determine thereby the layer thickness, said hopper including a sidewall coextensive with said semicylindrical botton and a bafiie extending over a major portion of said sweep to define said inlet at one side of the sweep, said receptacle having a downwardly inclined chute outlet leading from the channel end to thereby permit the advancing beads to develop the layer of receptacle advance, the mobile wheeled mounting of the receptacle forming the power source by the rotation of the axle for rotation of the sweep during the mobile advance of the receptacle.

2. The device of claim 1 in which the discharge edge of the semicylindrical portion is approxi mately half the distance between the bottom of said portion and the axis thereof, and a baffle is provided in said chute to define a limited opening therein, said last named baflie being spaced from the first named battle to provide a space to receive beads swept therein by the sweep at its discharge side above the chute opening.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 473,952 Ozley May 3, 1892 767,084 Reagan et al. Aug. 9, 1904 1,437,863 Raymond Dec. 5, 1922 2,475,381 Erickson July 5, 1949 

